Distributed, fault-tolerant communication systems are used, for example, in applications where a failure could possibly result in injury or death to one or more persons. Such applications are referred to here as “safety-critical applications.” One example of a safety-critical application is in a system that is used to monitor and manage sensors and actuators included in an airplane or other aerospace vehicle
One architecture that is commonly considered for use in such safety-critical applications is the time-triggered, table driven architecture. In a time-triggered, table driven system, multiple nodes communicate with one another over two replicated high-speed communication channels.
Distributed systems. such as time-triggered table driven systems. need a common notion of time to coordinate activities. In recent years, fault-tolerant clock synchronization has moved towards distributed clock synchronization using simplex source nodes and associated clocks to achieve a common notion of time with associated well-known problems such as Byzantine clock synchronization. These distributed clock synchronization schemes require significant increases in clock synchronization algorithm overheads (about a factor of two in a single fault-tolerant system) to provide sufficient precision to address such problems.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for improved clock synchronization systems and methods.